Bocas Lit Fest begins tomorrow

Story Created: Apr 23, 2013 at 8:18 PM ECT

Story Updated: Apr 23, 2013 at 8:20 PM ECT

At the third annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest which starts tomorrow at the National Library the very first Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Literature will be awarded to Trinidadian John La Rose (posthumously) and Sarah White for their own exemplary work publishing and promoting Caribbean writers.

In the 1940s Henry Swanzy was the editor in what is now the BBC World Service of the weekly Caribbean Voices programme that featured creative writing from the English-speaking Caribbean. It became pivotal in shaping the development of the region’s post war literature, now regarded as the Golden Age of Caribbean writing.

Between 1943 and 1955 when Swanzy left, 400 stories and poems along with plays and literary criticism had been broadcast by 372 contributors. On Swanzy’s departure the Times Literary Supplement wrote “West Indian writers freely acknowledge their debt to the BBC for its encouragement, financial and aesthetic. Without that encouragement the birth of a Caribbean literature would have been slower and even more painful than it has been”. Naipaul noted that Swanzy brought to the programme ‘standards and enthusiasm. He took local writing seriously and lifted it above the local’.

John La Rose migrated to Britain in 1961. With his partner, Sarah White, he founded in London in 1966, New Beacon Books, both a pioneering publishing house and a specialist bookshop focusing on writers and writing from the Caribbean. For him publishing was a vehicle to give independent validation to one’s own culture, history and politics, a way of achieving cultural and social change. They published works by writers such as Wilson Harris, Andrew Salkey, Errol Hill, Dennis Scott, Erna Brodber, Mervyn Morris, and numerous others.

La Rose co-founded with Andrew Salkey and Kamau Brathwaite, the Caribbean Artists Movement, providing a platform for Caribbean artists, poets, writers, dramatists, actors and musicians. In 1982 he co-founded and directed the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books until 1995. The George Padmore Institute, an archive, library and educational research centre housing materials relating to communities of Caribbean, African and Asian descent in Britain and continental Europe, was established in 1991.

On Thursday at 5 p.m. Horace Ove’s film on La Rose Dream to Change the World will be screened, followed by a short talk by Sarah White on the work of the late John La Rose and presentation of the inaugural Award.

Every year the NGC Bocas Lit Fest and the National Museum and Art Gallery partner to invite an artist to create a limited-edition work of art. The first numbered piece becomes part of the unique Festival Art Collection of the National Museum and Art Gallery. Funds raised from the sale of the signed, numbered works go to the Lit Fest.

The 2013 festival artist is Wendy Nanan whose piece for this year’s event was unveiled on the First floor of the National Museum and Art Gallery, Frederick Street, Port of Spain. Born in Port of Spain in 1955, she obtained the BFA (Painting) in the UK and currently lives and works in Port of Spain. She has been exhibiting regularly since 1985, including shows in France, Britain, Canada, and the Dominican Republic.

Transmission pursues Nanan’s interest in the book form, and the idea of the transfer of knowledge.

A special tour of Port of Spain through the eyes of award winning fictional writers and famous characters began last Saturday.

Based on the critically acclaimed LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Kris Rampersad, the LiTTour starts 8 a.m. by prebookings only, leaving from the South Quay compounds of the Public Transport Service Corporation, through the capital city: landscapes and lifestyles; institutions, cultural life, politics, architecture and will be free to persons who, until tomorrow, purchase, a copy of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago.

LiTTscapes presents Trinidad and Tobago through some 60 writers in more than 100 works since 1595. Head of the Guyana Prize for Literature, Professor Al Creighton described LiTTscapes as a work of art; a documentary, a travelogue, a critical work with visual and literary power. It takes us on a tour of the country, giving some exposure to almost every aspect of life.

In conjunction with LiTTscapes and LiTTours, launched last August, Rampersad has also introduced LiTTributes – events in tribute to Caribbean cultures and creativity which have to date been staged in Guyana, Antigua and Trinidad and Tobago and soon in the UK and USA. They are meant to promote literacy, creativity and interactive appreciation of the global multicultural milieu Trinidad and Tobago.

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is free and open to all. It runs from April 25-28 at NALIS.

Free, secure weekday parking is available in Queens Park Savannah with a free hourly shuttle service to NALIS and back. For more information about the Festival programme, visit http://www.bocaslitfest.com.

For new writers: how to find your subject and voice, and break through the barrier of the opening line

10 am–12.30 pm • 1st Floor Seminar Room

FATHER FIGURES

Colin Grant and Hannah Lowe

chaired by Ruth Borthwick

Prose and verse portraits of Jamaican fathers, by the authors of Bageye at the Wheel and Chick

10.30–11.30 am • Old Fire Station

POETRY

Marion Bethel and Cyril Dabydeen chaired by Nicha Selvon-Ramkissoon

Readings by poets from the Bahamas and Guyana

10.30–11.30 am • AV Room

NEW TALENT SHOWCASE

Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné

The first of our New Talent Showcase writers reads from her poems and discusses her work

12–12.45 pm • Old Fire Station

PERFORMANCE POETRY AND OPEN MIC

Lunchtime jam

A selection of performance poets take their vibe to the streets of the city. Plus a chance for budding

writers to share their work

12–1 pm • Abercromby Street Arcade

FILM

Barbado’ed, dir. Shane Brennan and Paul Arnott

The poorest community in Barbados is the Redlegs, the direct descendants of Scots transported to

Barbados in the 17th century.

Scottish author Chris Dolan discovers what they know about their roots, and what their prospects are

12–1 pm • AV Room

FORGOTTEN STORIES

Andrea Stuart and Chris Dolan

chaired by Margaret Busby

Forgotten parts of the history of Barbados, retold by the authors of Sugar in the Blood and Redlegs

1.00–2.00 pm • AV Room

WORKSHOP

Length matters

with Cyril Dabydeen

There are stories that need a few dozen pages, and some that need a few dozen words. An introduction to short-short fiction

1.30–4 pm • 1st Floor Seminar Room

DISCUSSION

Beyond a Boundary at 50 with Deryck Murray and Arnold Gibbons, chaired by Kenneth

Ramchand C.L.R. James’s great book on sport, politics, and society celebrates its half-century in 2012. A panel of sportsmen and scholars discuss its continuing relevance

1.30–2.30 pm • Old Fire Station

MUSIC

Lovey and Co.

with John Cowley

The first Trinidadian musicians ever to be recorded were Lovey’s Original Trinidad String Band, in 1912. The author of Carnival, Canboulay, and Calypso tells the story, and discusses Lovey’s legacy with Trinidad Express features editor Deborah John

2–3 pm • AV Room

FICTION

Courttia Newland and Ifeona Fulani

chaired by Ryan Durgasingh

A reading of new fiction by the authors of The Gospel According to Cane and Ten Days in Jamaica

2.30–3.30 pm • Old Fire Station

FICTION

Kerry Young and Diana McCaulay

chaired by Giselle Rampaul

Jamaican family histories transformed into fiction by the authors of Pao and Huracan

The British author of Alone of All Her Sex and Stranger Magic talks to Lawrence Scott about myths, history, and stories

5–6 pm • Old Fire Station

FILM

A Dream to Change the World: A Tribute to John La Rose, dir. Horace Ové, CBE

A documentary about the life of the late John La Rose, poet, essayist, publisher, trade unionist, cultural and political activist, and founder of New Beacon Books and chairman of the George Padmore Institute in London

5–7 pm • AV Room

BOCAS HENRY SWANZY AWARD

The presentation of the inaugural Bocas Swanzy Award, recognising distinguished service to Caribbean letters, to John La Rose (posthumously) and Sarah White of New Beacon Books

February 2018

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Leader4Dev Multistakeholder Multimedia Multicultural Sustainable Development Educator Facilitator Producer Publisher
A independent sustainable development global thought leader and change agent functioning as consultant/facilitator, educator & conventional & web content multimedia producer/publisher and journalist with some three decades experience in media and as a cultural practitioner and more than a decade in devising novel approaches to multistakeholder outreach and engagement that integrate revisioning and synergises of sectoral vision and objectives delivered through culture and gender sensitive lenses.
A print and television journalist with more than a decade experience in building multi-sectoral partnerships with international intergovernmental agencies and promotion of sustainable development for social equity and inclusion for poverty eradication, food security, sound governance through education, literacy, communications, heritage and culture, civic participation, democratic engagement social justice & equality to give effect to the knowledge/ICTs and creative economies.
BA First Class Honours and PhD degrees from the University of the West Indies (UWI); Diploma in Mass Communications, Jawaharlal Nehru University; skills development training in management, leadership, diversity management, ICTs and new media, journalism, communications, fundraising, networking, gender equity and advocacy. Recipient Commonwealth Professional Fellowship; Fellowship to Wolfson College, Cambridge University; the Foreign Press Centre of Japan, UWI post graduate scholar among others.
Culling sustainable knowledge culture for heritage tourism and literacy in own initiative Leaves of Life through LiTTributes, LiTTevents & LiTTours,
Author of Finding A Place &Through the Political Glass Ceiling, LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago.
Awards for journalism, arts, culture: Luminary 2015,Media Award for Excellence in Journalism, Pan American Health Organisation Award for Excellence in Journalism; Awards top student IIMC, UWI; Development Policy Blogging for New Media.